BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

(June 2012)

"It's like putting tracing paper over the horror movie, taking its highs and lows and getting the same response from the audience without actually showing anything horrific.”

-- Peter Strickland

Writer/director Peter Strickland’s second feature, Berberian Sound Studio is one of those titles whose “horror” status some may question, so I’m mentioning it here, outside of the ¡Qué horror!  crush.

In it, we’re transported to Italy, 1976, where Toby Jones plays British sound engineer Gilderoy, who’s been hired to work on Il Vortice Equestre (The Equestrian Vortex), what turns out to be a lurid giallo chockfull of torture and violence, which we quickly discover, is not quite Gilderoy’s cup of tea.

“Horror was the starting point but I would never call it a horror in a million years. I guess the rule was to bounce off that genre – to immediately say, no blood, no murder – but still make it scary. What was exciting about that genre was it has its own history, rules and regulations that you can manipulate and mess around with. There’s something very gratifying in taking a template and turning it into something very personal.”

-- Peter Strickland

Not only does the film, A) send a knowing nod to the heyday of giallo, and B) give a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of old school analogue sound recording (and by extension, display just how vital sound design is to the entire cinematic experience), but also, C) manage to do the job many a full-on contemporary horror movie fails to pull off--build a sense of true disquiet and dread.

And what are some of the weapons Strickland has in his arsenal to achieve said sense? Vegetables, homesickness, difficulties in the work environment, and Jones’ fine performance.

Tellingly, we are never shown a single frame of Il Vortice Equestre, save for its brilliant opening credits (courtesy of Julian House). We’re left to imagine what atrocities Gilderoy is forced to view in order to do his job, the sound of vegetables being shredded and stabbed, and the putrescent texture of their decaying remains exquisitely heightening our fevered imaginings.

Berberian Sound Studio is an enigmatic experience that proves that tone is such a crucial element of the horror genre and can succeed in disturbing an audience far more effectively than gallons of fake blood and gore.

“Genre is a starting point for me, that is my personal taste. I love to screw around with it. Of course, there were many giallo references, but it's more about people making giallo, rather than becoming so itself. We pay lip service now and again in the way we use certain shots, certain zooms, but we wanted to depart from it too. It was the bombastic, rock and roll element that drew me. I mean, I don't see Argento's Suspiria as cinema: it's more like psychedelia to me. I'm not interested in showing horror. But I am interested in the effects of it. Berberian Sound Studio is a meditation on sound as much as it is a meditation on violence.”

-- Peter Strickland

Parting Shot: Berberian Sound Studio took home the following awards from 2012’s BIFAs: Best Director; Best Actor (for Toby Jones); Best Technical Achievement – Sound Design (Joakim Sundström and Stevie Haywood); and Best Achievement in Production.

The film was also nominated for Best Screenplay; Best Technical Achievement – Cinematographer (Nic Knowland); and Best British Independent Film (the award for which was ultimately taken home by Rufus Norris’ Broken).

(Berberian Sound Studio UK quad courtesy of impawards.com.)

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
(Review)


Since this is a film adaptation of a John le Carré spy novel, this may initially seem an odd title to get a mention here, till it becomes clear that this one is director Tomas Alfredson’s follow-up feature to past ¡Qué horror! title, Låt Den Rätte Komma In.
With an absolutely killer cast that includes Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hardy, this one should really be on any film enthusiast’s radar.
The recently concluded BAFTAs gave it the awards for Outstanding British Film and Adapted Screenplay (by Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan); it had nine additional BAFTA nominations, including nods for Cinematography and Editing (by Låt Den Rätte Komma In tag team, Hoyte Van Hoytema and Dino Jonsäter), and Original Music (by frequent Pedro Almodóvar collaborator, Alberto Iglesias).
As a neat BAFTA capper, John Hurt was also recognized for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema.
So, go. Really. Watch this. Please.

Parting shot: Sadly, the film seems to have been short-changed at this year’s Oscars, only receiving a middling three nominations, for Actor in a Leading Role (Oldman), Original Score, and Adapted Screenplay.
Sigh.

(Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy OS courtesy of aintitcool.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best, Most Recent Horror Movies I’ve Seen
[9 of 13]
THE MIST (November 2007)


More so than being a monster movie—and it is that, a rather exceptional one, to boot—The Mist is really about the desperation and insanity that can grab hold of people who are suddenly faced with the disastrous and the inexplicable.

Read the entire review here.

(The Mist OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by BLT & Associates].)

THE MIST
(Review)

Before I get into this, one thing: Frank Darabont has balls of steel. Nay, adamantium.
Balls of adamantium.
Indeed, he does.


I was first swallowed by Stephen King’s The Mist way back in 1981, in the truly exceptional and in many ways, groundbreaking, horror anthology, Dark Forces.
Mr. King’s The Mist left an impression for a number of reasons.
One: at 130 pages, it was the longest story in Dark Forces, and it introduced me to the literary form known as the novella, something too long to be called a short story, yet too short to be called a novel.
Two: it had an ending that was definitely not a happy one, and unlike, say, The Omen’s ending, where we see the main character bite the dust in his vain effort to slay the AntiChrist, The Mist’s ending was more open-ended. It presented a vague sliver of hope, but allowed the reader to decide the remaining characters’ fates; King basically left you to decide what shade you preferred for that downer ending. (Though a part of me was irked since King opted not to present a firm resolution to the story, I eventually came to understand that this was simply another way in which to end a story.)
As far as King’s novella was concerned, it ended with a choice: optimists could choose the greyer-shaded ending; pessimists, the blacker-.
In writing the screenplay for his film adaptation though, Darabont gives us a definite ending all right, and it’s certainly not a gentle one…


The day after a sudden, violent storm, David Drayton (a fantastic Thomas Jane) and his son Billy (Babel’s Nathan Gamble, soon to be seen as Jim Gordon’s son in The Dark Knight), along with a host of other townsfolk buying emergency supplies, get trapped in the local grocery when the strange titular mist comes rolling in.
People want to get home, of course. To loved ones left alone to clear up the post-storm mess, like David’s wife, Stephanie (Kelly Collins Lintz, from TV’s Surface and One Tree Hill). But no one can leave the Food House though.
There are things in the mist, see. Hungry things.


More so than being a monster movie—and it is that, a rather exceptional one, to boot—The Mist is really about the desperation and insanity that can grab hold of people who are suddenly faced with the disastrous and the inexplicable.
People get scared, irrational, unpredictable. Dangerous.
Throw in Mrs. Carmody, an unstable, religious fanatic (played by the supremely awesome Marcia Gay Harden), and an already dire situation quickly escalates into a vicious exercise in staying alive and sane.
This poor collective may have barricaded themselves in, but not all the monsters are out there in the mist…


King’s characters are brought to celluloid life by an across-the-board amazing cast which also includes Infamous’ Toby Jones, The X-Files’ Laurie Holden, Homicide‘s Andre Braugher, frequent Darabont collaborator William Sadler, and veteran actors Frances Sternhagen and Jeffrey DeMunn. Also in roles pumped up a tad from the novella, Reunion’s Alexa Davalos and Battlestar Galactica’s Sam Witwer.
The exceptional performances are then magnificently supported by some wicked creature design and effects by genre stalwarts, the KNB EFX Group.


But this is all brought together by the Man with the Adamantium Balls himself, Mr. Frank Darabont, who captures that sense of bubbling tension trapped in the confines of the grocery like some toxic gas, inexorably building up to some horrible apex where the worst in the human condition either simply deteriorates into a rank hopelessness, or combusts into raw, savage violence.
Then, of course, there’s that ending.
Hoo-boy, that ending!
Save for a handful of bits either excised from the original source material (an adulterous liaison) or added on (as per some characters getting their roles expanded from the novella, or new scenes to further flesh out plot or character dynamics), Darabont’s The Mist is pretty much the novella skillfully transfigured for the silver screen. The story’s major beats are virtually intact: Norm the bag boy, the pharmacy, what Ollie Weeks does right before they attempt their great escape, dot dot dot.
Those familiar with the novella’s generally bleak climax though, will still be chilled at the uncompromising coda Darabont chooses to close the film with. It’s brutal, people, and his The Mist is one of those emotionally potent and wrenching horror films that doesn’t hold back on its gut punches.


Coming out of a field where any weak link isn’t readily apparent, the MVP is still most definitely Darabont, who, in hijacking a substantial portion of The Shield crew during their hiatus (camera operators, D.P., editor, script supervisor, all of whom Darabont enjoyed working with when he directed an episode of the TV show) and making what he describes as a “very direct, muscular kind of film,” he’s crafted what I feel is, alongside Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil, the best Stephen King film adaptation I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I love (to varying degrees) Stand By Me, Carrie, Pet Sematary, and Misery, but The Mist is something else entirely, and so unlike Darabont’s previous King adaptations, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, it’s astounding.
I was hoping this would be good, but I certainly didn’t expect Darabont would kick me in the a$$ quite so convincingly; he took a 27-year old story and made a riveting horror film rife with tension and emotion, that is startlingly relevant to our post-9/11 world. (He also gets to sneak some Dead Can Dance and Drew Struzan in there, so, really, what’s not to like?)


Is it terrifying? Yes.
Is it comforting? Frak, no.
But does it say something?
Yes, it does, and anyone watching The Mist will hopefully see beyond the otherworldly beasties to learn something about the very ugly, and very real monsters that live under our own, very human, skins.

“On the one level, it’s meant to be a really cool, intense, scary creature feature. But if it were just that, I wouldn’t have wanted to adapt that story. What it does give is something somewhat subversive, which I think all the best horror is.
“Really, it’s an examination of people in a pressure cooker. What does a climate of fear make you do? What mistakes does it compel? How far off the precipice do we sail? Which speaks to the ending as well.
“I just find that absolutely fascinating, because we’ve been nothing if not living in a pressure cooker of fear and the exploitation of fear, the fear of fear, so far in the 21st century. That seems to be defining our behavior, so that makes it really fantastic material to dive into.”
-- Frank Darabont on The Mist

(The Mist OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by BLT & Associates]; images courtesy of aintitcool.com, filmz.ru, and shocktillyoudrop.com.)

(Frank Darabont quote from an aintitcool.com interview.)